The invention relates to an apparatus for material treatment of raw materials. The apparatus has a heating system, a distillation unit and a reaction unit. The reaction unit is designed such that it can be charged with the raw materials for treatment. The heating system can be opened and closed for being fitted with the reaction unit. The apparatus is also referred to as an industrial module for low-temperature carbonization and distillation. The invention also relates to a method for operating an apparatus for material treatment of raw materials.
The apparatus is intended for the industrial treatment, in particular of waste rubber products, rubber products or rubber-like composite products, such as scrap tires, steel-cord-reinforced rubber belts, rubberized chain links and conveyor belts, and also crushed scrap vehicles, organic renewable raw materials, such as wood, contaminated inorganic carbons and contaminated soils. Light crude oil, gas, metals, in particular steel, and inorganic carbon are thereby obtained.
Installations known from the prior art are based on the use of rotary kilns, fluidized bed reactors and drums and operate with compacted starting material or in a chemically inert atmosphere with the exclusion of oxygen.
DE 695 11 626 T2 discloses a furnace for the thermal treatment of solid materials. The furnace has a rotary element, in which the solid materials circulate, and a heating means. The fixed heating means, arranged coaxially and inside the rotary element, is designed in such a way as to channel the solid materials and ensure their preheating and/or heating.
DE 199 30 071 C2 describes a method and an apparatus for making use of organic materials and mixtures of materials. The organic material is thereby brought into contact with fluidized bed material of the combustion fluidized bed. The method produces end products in the form of gases with condensable substances and remaining carbon-containing materials.
DE 44 41 423 A1 discloses a method and an apparatus for recovering usable gas from refuse. This involves introducing the comminuted refuse into a gastight drum. In the drum, gas is generated and separated from the remaining material formed at the same time. The gas generated is cracked in a gas converter while feeding in air, and in the presence of a glowing coke bed, to form a cracked gas. The heat required in the method is transferred by a gas in direct contact with the material to be put to use. For the transfer of the heat to the gas, a partial stream of the cracked gas leaving the gas converter is used.
DE 41 26 319 A1 shows a method for making use of silicone rubber vulcanizates in which the vulcanizates are heated to 350° C. to 700° C. and the volatile siloxanes thereby produced are condensed. Siloxanes and fillers are produced in particular as products.
DE 40 11 945 C1 discloses a method for degasifying organic substances, such as for example household or industrial refuse and the like, in a heatable chamber. In the method, the starting materials are introduced into a chamber while being compacted and pass through the cross section of the chamber while maintaining the compacted state. Heat is fed in via the chamber walls under pressure from being in contact with the compacted material. The gaseous products forming are discharged under increased pressure. The chamber is closed in a gastight manner in its charging region by the compacted material. An increased flow resistance is achieved in the region of the outflow of the gaseous products by recompaction of the remaining solid materials.
DE 39 32 803 A1 discloses a process for reacting organic materials with the addition of boric acid/boron oxide and organic nitrogen compounds in a non-oxidizing atmosphere or in a vacuum to form coal and graphite. Increased amounts of expenditure on material, energy and logistics are required for operating conventional installations.
The use of protective gases, that is to say a non-oxidizing atmosphere, means for example that the throughput with comparable units is low. The creation of a fluidized bed for fluidized bed reactors requires increased expenditure of energy, since on the one hand the fluidized bed has to be created and retained and on the other hand the materials to be used have to be mechanically prepared in such a way that they come into effective contact with the fluidized bed.
High energy costs are likewise incurred as a result of the compacting of the starting materials during preparation and during the process of using them.